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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Valentine's Day

You do know it's Valentine's Day? Not "Valentime's Day"? I hope so. If not, I might not be able to talk to you.

Anyway. I've been busy, as you may guess. I still update The Elka Almanac regularly; rather M-F in fact. I may have mentioned, it's easier to talk about dogs than writing. Writing still feels like a cloistered tower or dusty garret sort of thing, done in secret, close to the vest, until it's time to reveal the masterpiece that of course everybody will love. Right? Right.

(Elka on the new couch)

Well, I did a read through and edit of Learn to Howl, the first book my werewolf...trilogy? Series? Cycle? I don't really know. I'm working on book 2, The Wolf You Feed, right now. Dear Kelly, who I love very much, has offered to read Learn to Howl. I do hope she likes it. And feels better soon so that she reads it. I won't bother her about it; this is the last time she'll see a "reminder." If she reads this post.

To add insult to injury, though? As it turns out, not only is one expected to write a novel (well, if one is a writer, anyway), one is then expected to write a query letter to agents to get them to read your novel. What is this shit? Query letters, unfortunately, a lot like cover letters to me. I'm bad at summarizing things, truly. So a query letter is hard for me to nail. It's kind of like "Dear so and so, this is my book's character. She's pretty rad. She finds out she's a werewolf. Conflict occurs. Character deals with conflict. Character triumphs. I hope you like it. I'm writing a sequel. Kisses! Me."

Less than compelling, n'est-ce pas? Of course, any actual query I send will be less....sarcastic. Far more useful. But I can't help but feeling that it's just so stilted. Maybe it's because I don't read blurbs of books? The title and cover are what get my attention, obviously; that's what those are for. But I open the book and read the beginning. I've read blurbs that give away too much information, and I've read blurbs that give incorrect information. I want the writing to speak for itself, y'know?

4 comments:

I'm under the impression (the same with cover letters) that after a while, it's ok to be sarcastic. It gives who ever is reading these things a break from the same crappy letter. So I'd try it both ways. Who knows. Can't hurt ya know?

Also, I'm getting better at my RSS feeds! I'm trying to read them more timely! Go me!. Also feeling better. Also I should read your novel. Also I should write more myself because my blog is lonely when you link to it and I feel bad that there isn't any new content for anyone who might click that link.

I am AWFUL at summarizing things, so I hate query letters, too. (Does anyone actually like them?) The sarcasm could always make an impression, and at least you wouldn't come across as one of those authors who takes his/her work WAAAAAY too seriously. (We all know at least one of those "Writing is SRS BZNS" people, right?)

I'm not sure anybody actually likes query letters. Maybe it's the people who like things like doing their taxes, and flossing.

Unfortunately, the people in my experience who are all SRS BZNS with their writing? Well, their writing.....isn't to my taste. Yeah, let's say it like that. I mean, I like to take my writing seriously. But I'm not the bestest in the world, obviously, or somebody would be handing me money for it by now.

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In a Nutshell

I've been writing a very long time, from when I made up Ghostbusters episodes when I was little and recorded them on my dad's boom box to now, submitting short stories to professional markets and querying a novel. I hand wrote a very bad fantasy novel in high school; it will never see the light of day.
My degree is in psychology, and I work at my local library. I have a Doberman named Elka, and live in central New York with my fiancé..
You can email me at Jennifer.rDonohue@gmail.com